Brazil Plane Crash update: Football World Rallies around Brazilian Team

The football world has rallied around a Brazilian club which lost most of its players in a plane crash in Colombia.

Only six of the 77 people on board the charter plane, carrying members of the Chapecoense team, survived the crash.

 

The team was flying to what was billed as the biggest match in their history – the final of the Copa Sudamericana.

 

Their opponents, Colombian team Atletico Nacional, have offered to concede the game to ensure Chapecoense are declared the champions.

 

In a tweet, the club also asked that fans to turn up to their stadium at the time which the game was scheduled, dressed in white.

 

In a joint statement, Brazilian first division football teams have offered to lend players to

 

Chapecoense free of charge, and asked the league to protect the club from relegation for the next three years.

 

Several leading footballers, from Barcelona stars Lionel Messi and Neymar, to Manchester United’s

 

Wayne Rooney, have also paid tribute to the players, who had become an unlikely success story in recent years.

 

Colombian aviation officials said there were also 21 journalists on board, and that both flight recorders have been recovered.